“The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth and have it found out by accident.” ― Charles Lamb

Thursday, March 23, 2017

"The FBI is still struggling to employ hackers because they’re all smoking weed"

Via Instapundit : A human resources official explained in the 2015 report that while 5000 persons may apply to the FBI's cyber security division, only 2000 will meet the eligibility requirements.
The marijuana problem was highlighted by Motherboard in 2014, when FBI director James Comey (who has since gone on to make bigger and bolder headlines) made remarks that were quoted in the Wall Street Journal.

I have to hire a great work force to compete with those cyber criminals and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview.

Comey later clarified his beliefs before the US Senate (prompted by then Senator Jeff Sessions from Alabama), stating he is ‘absolutely dead-set against using marijuana’.
Nevertheless, the government's stringent 'no drugs' policy is in danger of excluding skilled candidates who just happen to love smoking weed in their spare time.

24 comments:

This is the same problem the DEA and FBI have finding undercover cops to work drug cases. Some of the best candidates have drug use in their background. With hackers, I could give a fuck if they smoke cannabis, as long as they're honest and good, WTF does it matter?

You know what happens to the hackers that we refuse to hire for petty reasons? They don't give up weed, and they don't give up hacking. So now you have to hire even more straight hackers. Not real goal-oriented thinking there.

Not over, just another one of the politicized FBI's projects that reminds us why we must drain the swamp.

ndspinelli said...

This is the same problem the DEA and FBI have finding undercover cops to work drug cases. Some of the best candidates have drug use in their background. With hackers, I could give a fuck if they smoke cannabis, as long as they're honest and good, WTF does it matter?

If they're into the drug scene, who says they're honest or good?

As we have seen elsewhere, character does count and there are plenty of computer scientists who don't do drugs.

Considering the date of the report, I'd say it sounds like another of President Pothead's outreach initiatives to one of his favorite constituencies, like making NASA's mission to reach out to Islam.

The same can be asked of the ones who don't. If you don't know any pot smokers who are honest and good, then you just don't know many pot smokers. If you don't know plenty of non-users who are dishonest and bad, then you don't know anybody. We are mere pikers in the vetting stuff. Islamists will chop off your head for using drugs. They know how to weed out dishonesty and evil from their ranks. That's why they have such an honest and good group of regular Joes.

Maybe the problem is not weed. The problem is that these hackers are probably all American citizens. Now if they were sanctuary cities undocumented hackers they would be hired on the spot. No questions asked.

I know who among my employees smokes pot, and despite the fact that it is strictly forbidden to be high at work with immediate termination on the first offense, some of my best, most capable, most loyal and cooperative people are pot heads. I tell them to stop wasting their money and time on it, but I can't say it makes them bad people or bad hires. The data just isn't there.

Everything in moderation. A little weed on the weekend is about the same level of impairment from a couple of beers on the weekend. Of course if someone is high coming into an interview then they are probably not a good candidate, not for the dope smoking, but for their judgment. But our government is limiting the pool of talent to choose from when they have rules like this.

somewhat OT: I enjoy and always read AllenS comments, but Dude your profile pic looks like you are so high right now. Rabel too---that smile... ;-)